About

The food waste problem

Households in the Metro Vancouver region generate about 190,000 tonnes of food waste every year. Over half of that, just over 100,000 tonnes, is food, liquid and dairy waste that could have been consumed. Reducing that waste is key to meeting Metro Vancouver’s waste diversion targets as well as our goal of a 10 per cent reduction in per capita waste by 2020.

Food waste adds about $700 a year to each household’s grocery bill, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Costs not factored into our research include inputs like the water, electricity, fertilizer, soil degradation and labour to produce the food as well as the fuel to transport that food to global markets.

Info Booklet

Love Food – Hate Waste

Metro Vancouver's Love Food Hate Waste campaign is modelled on
WRAP United Kingdom’s successful initiative of the same name. Since its launch in 2007, avoidable household food waste was cut by 21 per cent over five years, saving UK consumers £13 billion.

Research confirms that Metro Vancouver residents enjoy cooking and trying new recipes, which tells us that we do value our food. But we buy too much food without knowing when we’ll use it, and we often don’t store our food properly.

Our campaign provides residents with simple steps they can take to use more of the food they purchase.

Metro Vancouver is a partnership of 21 municipalities, one Electoral Area and one Treaty First Nation that collaboratively plans for and delivers regional-scale services. Its core services are drinking water, wastewater treatment and solid waste management. Metro Vancouver also regulates air quality, plans for urban growth, manages a regional parks system and provides affordable housing.

Collaboration

Canada Safeway is helping customers reduce food waste with in-store announcements that share our food storage tips. They are also sharing our tips with their Twitter and Facebook followers.

Farm Folk – City Folk contributed their Foodprint Project materials to help us create our
Shelf Life food storage resource.